Today, a journalism student contacted me with some questions as to my views on the media industry. Here’s my detailed response:

Q: What is your definition of good journalism?

A: The original role of the “Fourth Estate” (traditional journalism) was to serve as a watchdog on government and private wrongdoing, corruption, waste, fraud and abuse of power. As some would know, there are three branches of government: legislative, executive and judicial. The Fourth Estate, is thus designed to serve as a checks and balances system for these three other institutions.

The real mission of the once-noble profession of journalism is truth, not objectivity. Truth is not impartial, it’s not neutral and it’s not “fair and balanced.” Truth is truth. That’s how journalism started off, but over time and thanks to the rise of regressive leftist ideologies infiltrating the industry and media outlets becoming bankrolled by either the government or globalist elite figures with sinister agendas, journalists for the last half a century or more have wrongly been taught that objectivity, fairness and balance are the ideals of our profession. That is why we now have a generation of so-called journalists who can’t tell the difference between truth and fiction. They have been put out of touch with the real reason for what they do and why the concept of journalism even exists in the first place.

And truth shouldn’t be like Coco Pops floating in a sea of milk. Truth should be based on the Bible – which is the basis for everything that is deemed good, moral and right in society. For example, the democratic Westminster system of government is based on Judaeo-Christian principles. The very concept of law and order is a Christian concept. Without God, there would be no concept of what is right and what is wrong. There is no denying that everything that made the West great came from Judaeo-Christian ethos and influence. The problem today is that society has departed from these roots and thought it smart to jackhammer away these foundations.

And get this: when the printing press – something synonymous with journalism – was invented in 1440 AD by Johann Gutenberg, a German, he felt compelled to print copies of the Bible. It’s almost comical to think that today’s journalists actually owe their entire livelihoods to a process that was inspired by man’s love for God’s word. Sixty-five years later, someone got the idea of producing a “newspaper.” A press ethic slowly emerged and it wasn’t about being “fair and balanced”, it certainly wasn’t about producing hunks of paper packed with celebrity gossip and outlandish fake news hit-pieces. The key pioneers of journalism in Europe held a firm and undying commitment to the highest standards of truthful reporting. Because of their commitment to exposing that which was considered morally wrong, many early newspaper pioneers were jailed simply because they sought the truth.

The truth of the matter is that everyone has a worldview – or a lens by which we look at the world and everything that pertains to it. All of us see through the lens of who we are and what we believe regardless whether we believe in the God of the Bible or not. Not just Christians – everybody. Some people, however, prefer to pretend that they don’t. Others like to pretend they have a religion but that it doesn’t affect what they say, do and think and what choices they make. Meanwhile, others like to pretend that they don’t impose their religious values on others. In fact, when you come to think of it, every single effort to pass a new piece of legislation is an effort by someone to impose their sense of morality on others. Imposition of morals is thus a two-way street. The question is, will good values or bad values prevail? Will we choose to walk in the light or in the darkness? Will we accept fables or speak the truth? And this is true not just in the areas of public policy and politics but in our everyday lives – whatever we do. It is thus with this frame of thinking that we approach journalism for it applies as much to this profession as anything else – perhaps more so because the expectation to be truthful is very high.

My Christian faith calls me to seek truth: “And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:32). Other religions don’t do that, nor have they ever established any basis for truth in society. They’ve all tried to hit the mark and missed miserably. That’s what makes Christianity so great.

Real journalism isn’t about re-writing press releases, it isn’t about libelous and sensational celebrity gossip, it isn’t about majoring on little factoids or capturing sound bytes and grabbing primary source statements in order to misconstrue or sensationalize them. That’s not what journalism is about. Real journalism is investigative, it’s thorough, it’s intrepid, it’s accurate, it’s hard-hitting, it pulls no punches, it’s not entertaining, it’s dangerous and it’s daring. It’s cold, hard and real. It seeks the truth, regardless of whom it might offend or benefit. It looks at all the facts in the light of truth. It goes where no one else wants to go. It is not beholden to agenda-driven corporate puppet-string-pullers. As George Orwell wisely said: “Journalism is printing what someone else does not want printed: everything else is public relations.”

Some may argue “oh but the journalism industry has evolved since the 1500’s” and I say to them “yes and no”. Yes it has grown in areas such as additional broadcast mediums, production techniques, technological expansions and has been influenced by the development of the English language but it has degenerated significantly in quality, mission and ethics. Thus, no corporate, big media outlet can claim to be the bastion of quality journalism in any way. It is because of this departure from pursuing the truth, that “news outlets” today are relegated to writing trashy celebrity gossip, meaningless and meandering opinion pieces on all manner of “non-story” topics and mass-producing fake news. Because of this, they’ve essentially dug their own graves and turned themselves into an irrelevancy… a minority lost in the din of millions of different voices.

Q: You attack the mainstream media regularly, yet so many of your stories use information published by them. For example, a recent article of yours about the Pauline Pantsdown guy used The Australian for quotes. If you have problems with the integrity of the mainstream media, why trust them as much as to accurately report what someone said?

A: Good question. When I can establish that facts are indeed facts through checking multiple sources and often contacting sources directly, then I go with that information in my stories. The problem is not real facts themselves, it is the additional information that is often conveniently left out – information which would accurately and honestly represent what actually happened. That is why I always seek extra information that I know the mainstream media will conveniently leave out. That is why I always question that information, too.

I don’t tend to use an awful lot of mainstream media stories as I prefer to use independent sources most of the time, but I will use them whenever I see facts being reported truthfully by the smidgen of truthful reporters left on this planet. If I don’t believe a story has been researched and investigated thoroughly, I as an independent, investigative reporter will do it myself.

In the case of the Pauline Pantsdown story, I actually contacted the folk at ACL and after trying to get hold of the managing director, Lyle Shelton, I was told he was too busy to speak to me, but everything he said to The Australian was correct and accurate. I verified this myself. The article by Eternity magazine was a lot better than The Australian’s as it gave a broader view of the situation and so I used quotes from there as well as from Simon Hunt himself. For example, The Australian left out the fact that it was Hunt, a well-known terribly nasty LGBTI advocate/provocateur, who was instrumental in the shutting down of another ACL conference earlier last year. Why did they avoid mentioning that fact? Because they’re afraid that it might incite “mean responses” to the LGBTI community. Who cares? Truth is truth and I couldn’t care less about whom it offends and whom it benefits.

Q: You say the mainstream media has become a “victim of liberal bias,” have you any examples of this I could draw on? Particularly in Australia.

A: Yes, the mainstream media has definitely become a victim of liberal bias. The problem is not bias but the lack of admission on the mainstream media’s part to being biased toward senseless left-wing ideologies. I am proudly biased – biased to pursuing the truth and nothing but the truth no matter who it benefits or offends.

As I said before, the media has lost its original mission, it’s been hijacked from its founding purpose and derailed from its guiding principles. It’s been sold out to corporate and government interests. These all have the single goal of controlling the narratives and pushing regressive leftist ideologies to create chaos and brokenness in society, to divide us all into factions and pit us against each other. They’re interested in implementing a new world order – as laid out in many famous speeches, writings and documents such as Agenda 21 and Agenda 2030. Put simply, they’re marching towards the goal of enslaving the minds of humanity to make us all think what they want us to think, do what they say we have to do and be what they want us to be. That is the globalist mindset.

As for examples, well why is it that every story about something political, social, ethical or religious in nature pushes only the liberal mindset? Hang on for a moment, I thought the media was all about being “fair and balanced”? Clearly, it isn’t. That’s why the truth and the truth only must be pursued.

The latest debate on the use of renewables as a “viable alternative” to coal-fired power stations to supply power to homes around this country of ours is a perfect example where regressive leftist ideology is forced upon us. If the truth was pursued, the public would be informed about the major problems with renewables including reliability, economical efficiency, financial impact and real environmental impact. But, no that’s something the mainstream media doesn’t want you to know about.

Another example is the “Safe Schools” program that the federal and state governments have been attempting to push in schools. The mainstream media won’t report on the fact that this vile sex-ed program is not an “anti-bullying” program (as it’s deceitfully packaged) but rather a filthy campaign that encourages kids in primary that they need to do things as outlandish as penis-tucking and breast-binding because they’re “trapped in the wrong body.” Instead, the media will focus on ridiculous factoids like flawed LGBTI suicide rate statistics or “research” on why they think kids do best with lesbian or gay parents. It’s abundantly clear to me that a diabolical agenda is being pushed instead of the cold, hard truth.

And these are just two out of a myriad of other examples that I could cite.

Today, when we look at the world around us, it seems as though there is precious little left in terms of Christian values and principles. And it’s true. Why is that so? How did we get to this point?

The answer is quite simple: man has radically rejected God’s laws which are in place for his own good and has instead tried to be his own god by making his own rules. The result right from the start was inevitably failure. And thus it is failure and brokenness that we see all around us.

Why do I say culture needs to be taken back? Because man has allowed lies, deception and falsehood to dictate truth. These lies, deception and falsehood come in the form of many regressive leftist ideologies such as cultural Marxism, liberalism, socialism, communism, fascism and feminism just to name a few.

Instead of seeing the Ten Commandments as blessings, man has preferred to treat them as burdens to be despised. Every one of the evil -isms that has been conjured up by man is the product of man thinking “I can do better than God.” As a result of this terribly flawed thinking, God has been left out of today’s public school curricula, family, politics, lawbooks, the mainstream media, pop culture, film and music industries, science, medicine and many more.

The key to taking back the culture for Christ is only through the restitution of Christian principles in society. Without Christian foundations, our society loses its moral compass. Without God, we descend into total anarchy.

The restitution of Christian values in culture is accomplished by faithful servants of God willing to be used by God for His purposes. As Christians we are ambassadors for Christ and it is our mission to plead with mankind to be reconciled with Christ. Of course – and this goes without saying – we have been given the Great Commission to go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature. This is a tremendous responsibility and something that we must not take lightly.

There are many ways in which we can take back the culture from Christ. This could be in the family, in the church or in the civic and political arenas. The specific battlefield in which one is called to participate in may be different for every individual but the goal is the same: regaining lost ground for Christ and His kingdom.

Whatever we do, it must be done with love, compassion, grace and mercy. You cannot have truth without grace and vice versa – it just doesn’t work. We all need to understand how to balance truth with grace and that is something that comes only through the grace of God.

We must always remember that in order to be effective in whatever God has called us to do that we – that means you and me – are actually living out and walking worthy of the calling in which we have been called. If we’re not then we’re hypocrites and are part of the problem. We have to do a 180 degree turn on culture – this is not an option.

It is so easy to point out all the problems in the world yet God has called us all to the important task of being the change in the world and so it is with great humility, discernment and prayer that we go about accomplishing this tremendous task.

How time flies! 2017 is less than a day away. As I look back and reflect over the past year, it’s been filled with many challenges, many hardships, many tragedies, many blessings and many unsettling things going on in the world.

Politically we saw the election of Donald Trump in a landslide victory, the fall of liberalism, the alarming rise of Islamic terrorism, the failed Open Doors policy in Germany, the BREXIT victory, the rise of populism in many Western countries.

Socially, we saw some serious advancements in the decay of Christian values and morality. Deplorable things such as same-sex marriage, abortion, euthanasia and many more were pushed to the forefront by the cultural Marxists. We also saw a lot of oppression, persecution and malevolent behaviour against Christians and the Christian faith in general.

Economically, many Western countries experienced unprecedented debt and third world countries saw unprecedented levels of financial hardship. Even as I write this, India and Venezuela are suffering from the effects of a collapsed economy.

Let’s lay aside all the bad things of this past year and let’s move on armed with hope, courage and fortitude of the victories of today into the future.

I believe 2017 can be a great year for change worldwide. But change starts with each of us. We – all of us – can be the catalysts for change. In 2017, once the revelling’s all over, life will go on as usual. We must be ready to be used of the Lord for his purposes to change the world and promote God’s truth as found in His written word.

Matthew 5:14-16 says:

14 “You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house.16 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.

Notice that it says “you are the light of the world” not “you will become the light of the world”! As Christians we are the light of the world. That is one of our tasks as followers of Christ. It is not an assumption nor is it an option it is a directive from our Commanding Officer – Jesus Christ. So if you’re not being a light in the world… in the darkness, then you had better be because this is what God requires of you as a born again Christian!

Are we being a light to the world around us? Are we truly?

We must not hide our light. It must be visible. It must be seen. It must shine forth and radiate brightly! We must not be timid. We must not be afraid! We must stick out as though we were a city on top of a hill!

Our good works do not make us better Christians, they make us better reflections of the power of Jesus Christ.

I want tell you that the real hope for the future of the world is not in politics or anything else. It’s in the spiritual realm. It’s always been that way. It will always be that way and we are assured of this in Scripture.

Despite the changing political, economic and social climates, we can be confident in the fact that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. Whilst the world changes, He remains the same. While the world is faithless, He remains faithful.

I don’t know what 2017 holds but we can take comfort in the fact that the Lord is in control over everything. Because we know He holds the future, we have no reason to be fearful.

I know one thing is certain and that is there will be more and more challenges from those who will seek with great determination to jackhammer the foundations of the Christian faith and tear through the very fabric Western society which is based on Judaeo-Christian values.

Despite the fierceness and tenacity of Satan’s army, we can be assured that the gates of hell will never ever prevail against the church of Jesus Christ (Matt 16:18).

We live in unprecedented times and if you are a child of God, you’ve got to be willing to stand in the gap for the sake of Christ. You’ve got to be willing to defend the faith that you espouse and you’ve got to be willing to stand up for freedom, truth and Christian value against the immoral tide of the left wing masses.

You’ve got to be a soldier as scared, small and helpless as you may feel. God’s with you and because of that glorious truth, none of us have any reason to fear!

2 Corinthians 5:20 reminds us: “now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God.”

We have the hope of God! And because we have that hope we can share it with the world around us – a lost and dying world that is thirsty and hungry for something better. And what better fulfilment than to find Jesus Christ, the fountain of living waters? The only one who can truly quench the infinite wells of longing and desire in the human heart.

God has given us a command to be His ambassadors. Let’s do it to the best of our ability in 2017! Make it your #1 New Year’s resolution to live for Christ, to be a “radical” Christian by forsaking all worldliness and living, sacrificing and labouring for Christ in the way that he has commanded each of us to.

For His Glory,

Caleb S. Stephen

Editor in Chief of The Caleb Report, freelance journalist and international columnist

When will the left-wingers and liberals learn that the way to bring their point across is through principled, educated and logical discussion, NOT calling everyone who holds a dissenting opinion ‘deplorable’, ‘racist’, ‘stupid’, ‘sexist’, ‘xenophobic’, ‘misognistic’ and so forth?

How about we learn to bring those differences to the table and sort them out cordially? No, instead what the liberals do is throw a hissy fit because they get triggered over something ridiculous. Stop getting triggered and actually talk to us conservatives and libertarians. We are very happy to talk with you. Of course there are those who are bad tempered and possess violent tendencies, however the great majority of us are actually well-educated, logical individuals who hold controversial opinions that simply challenge the status quo. And there’s nothing wrong with that.

We conservatives don’t get triggered like you liberals. That’s not bragging, it’s just a fact. Like someone rightly pointed out, back in 2009 when Barack Obama won the election, did we see conservatives marching up and down the streets protesting the results of a democratic election? No we didn’t!

We need to learn that often the best way to resolve the issues on this planet is by creating and facilitating discussion. Yes that discussion may grow slightly heated at times however there is no excuse for either side (yes I am talking about us conservatives) and in particular the liberals who tend to be the common culprits, to call each other names. We must realise that we live in a free, democratic society (I am assuming we all live outside of North Korea, yes?) where each individual has the irrevocable right to express his/her opinion. It is not a crime to express one’s opinion but unfortunately it seems the militant faction of liberals has made it a hate crime for a conservative – or just about anyone for that matter – to express a dissenting opinion.

I would like for us all to embrace principled discussion – and if necessary, debate – over the hot topics that affect us all. Discussion is what makes democracy a wonderful thing.

Despite the heroic efforts of first responders including a taxi driver who busted down a door to save the lives of the passengers on board who most certainly would have suffocated or even burnt alive had it not been for his efforts, the driver sadly passed away in the fire.

Queensland paramedics described the injuries of the deceased as ‘incompatible with living.’ That’s basically a clinical term for saying their bodies were badly mangled… or worse. It’s not hard to imagine given the horrific nature of the accident which out of respect for the deceased and their families, I will not go into the exact details as the media has already over sensationalised it.

Again extremely shocking circumstances. This tragedy has certainly shaken those closely involved as well as the Gold Coast community and beyond.

Death. It’s a word that invokes utter fear and horror in the minds of many… and it’s something that each of us will have to face someday. Doctors all agree that 10 out of 10 people die (not that we need them to tell us that). Whether it’s tonight or in 70 odd years time, each one of us will go 6 foot under. That’s the plain, cold, hard reality of life.

Death rears its ugly head at the most unexpected times. It takes those whom we love like the wind that blows the leaves away. It’s fleetingly sweet like the vapour of a candle, but bitter like the acrid smoke when it’s snuffed out. It’s plain tragic to put it simply.

Are you ready to face death? Quite frankly that’s a confronting and uncomfortable question, right? I want you to think about that for a moment because it’s a question that warrants some serious thought.

Do you know where you will go when you leave this planet that we call home? What if your heart were to stop beating tonight… what if you were to breathe your very last breath?

Statistics show 154,000 people around the globe die each day. That breaks down to roughly 107 people a minute or 2 per second!

If you are concerned about where you will spend eternity, then I invite you to check out the short video below.